‘Municipality boosting efforts to keep Amman clean’

[8/8/2012 12:00:00 AM]

AMMONNEWS-The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) is boosting its efforts to “restore” the capital’s reputation as a clean city, municipal officials said on Monday.

“We are doing everything we can considering the limited resources we have,” Abdul Halim Kaylani, head of the GAM committee, told reporters during a media tour designed to “show journalists that GAM is doing its best to keep Amman a clean city”.

“The situation of cleanliness in Amman has tangibly improved over the last two weeks,” Kaylani noted during the tour, which follows criticism of the capital’s deteriorating state of sanitation in local newspapers over the past two months.

GAM officials took journalists to the Ain Ghazal station, which was recently transformed into a temporary dumpster before garbage is moved to landfills in east Amman.

The facility has the capacity to take on 500 tonnes of trash, and using it speeds up the process of clearing garbage from residential and commercial areas, Kaylani said.

Over the past two weeks, large garbage containers have been used to collect waste from commercial and industrial areas, Mohammad Amaireh, director of GAM’s waste operations department, told The Jordan Times.

In addition, around 500 cleaners were hired recently, which means that 4,500 employees are now in service, working three-shifts to clear garbage out of the city, according to GAM.

Amman residents, however, are still unhappy with the performance of GAM.

“I do not know what efforts they are talking about since garbage is still rotting outside my house. I have lived in Amman for more than 40 years and it was never like this before,” said a resident of the capital’s Jubeiha neighbourhood, who did not want to be named.

“I hope something happens, but I fear the situation is only getting worse every day.”

Basem Tarawneh, deputy manager of greater Amman department, told The Jordan Times that residents share responsibility in maintaining the cleanliness of the capital.

“Residents of Amman should also help us keep the city clean. They should throw garbage in containers sometime between 8:00pm and 8:00am. They should also ensure that garbage goes inside the containers. This way we can all keep Amman clean.”

“The media should help us reach people and remind them that we are all responsible for the cleanliness of Amman,” Tarawneh added.